Banking Regulation Team Pitches New Payment Rules

Posted on Dec 27, 2010

An international panel of banking regulators from 27 nations is aiming to crack down on outlandish pay packages for industry executives by proposing a new set of rules that call for more transparency and, wonder of wonders, some correlation between top-level salaries and bonuses relative to the performance of the institutions themselves. —KA

AP via Google News:

The panel’s six-page plan would require banks to disclose more information about how pay and compensation are awarded and are related to job performance, how a company is organized and the “long-term performance measures” of the company itself.

Under the plan, banks would have to disclose the “number and total amount of guaranteed bonuses during the financial year,” how a bank’s pay and compensation may have been adjusted because of weak performance, and how much deferred compensation remains outstanding.

The European Union and other nations have been setting rules on bankers’ pay to prevent the kind of excessive risk-taking that they fear contributed to the crisis. Earlier this month, EU regulators slapped limits onto cash payouts and banking bonuses.

Some bankers have expressed skepticism of having to go beyond what regulators already require, but the Basel committee said its latest proposal would “add greater specificity” to previous guidance on how much banks should have to disclose publicly.